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Minutes' of a Public Hearing , <br />October 6, 2010 <br />Page 27 ; <br />? <br />Mayor Rinker: I'm aware there have been times where people have come forward and frankly as <br />" a Mayor, being able to say th?at you have to go through the referendum process and the <br />timeframe was a deterrent so; for people who liked that as a deterrent, I think it works <br />very well. For those that think it needs to be sped up, it doesn't work very well. I think it <br />really is a judgment call and it's a matter of opinion. <br />* * <br />Q: In a future election, if this does not pass hopefully, can this not be put on with the <br />wording that without referendum non-residential zoning can be done? <br />Mayor Rinker: Yes. <br />Q: So, it could be gotten around this whole brouhaha? <br />Mayor Rinker: Yes. There are three ways. Just understand, and Ohio is, as Dr. Keller pointed <br />out, is a very populous, very Democratic State. We have in our State Constitution and <br />then statutes that effectuate that, the right of people to initiate a zoning change, any kind <br />of change, like a proposition. You can do that through an initiative petition. There aze <br />rules about how many people you need in a certain community, the timeframe in which to <br />do it, those are pretty specific rules of the game, if you will, to get it on to the ballot. <br />That can always be done by the voters themselves. Another way is that the Council can <br />initiate it through legislation and put that to the voters in that regard and then the third <br />way is the one that we're dealing with tonight which is a Charter Review Commission <br />comprised of citizens of the community deliberate and come up with these proposals. The <br />thing that I had told the last Charter Review Commission, I said if you feel strongly about <br />this issue, you've got plenty of time after the election. Human nature seems to be that <br />when the pressure is off, we tend to get involved and we're all busy doing other things. <br />It's a little bit harder to do it,? but it can be done. There have been a number of issues, <br />grassroots issues where this community, people in the community have knocked on door <br />to door, gotten people to sign :a petition and issued a petition and put that issue on to the <br />ballot. So it can be done. It has been done. <br /> <br />Q: Okay, because, and I wanted to make sure that I am understanding this clearly. That as I <br />read this and understand it, while the likelihood may not be great, I live along SOM <br />Center Road. Directly across the street from me is a big vacant lot across from a current